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Old February 23, 2013   #15
Dutch
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: S.E. Wisconsin Zone 5b
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Are clay or hardpan problems in your garden? Gypsum may be just the answer to help break -up and loosen the soil structure. It's not a miracle and it doesn't work over-night, but a three-year program of yearly applications should help improve poor soil conditions. It's easy to apply and relatively inexpensive for the job it does.
One of the biggest problems a home gardener faces in a new or established garden is a clay or hardpan type of soil. Poor drainage, soggy soil, and soil compaction are just a few of the conditions that clay or hardpan soils create.
In a new garden one can work organic humus into the soil to help break-up poor soil. Bark, sawdust, manure, compost, peat moss and soil mulches and conditioners are often used for this purpose. Incidentally, if bark or sawdust are used they will leach nitrogen from the soil, as they decompose, so additional nitrogen will need to be added on a seasonal basis.
But what do you do in an established garden? It would be too much work and take too much time to dig, replant and then recondition the soil. Here's where Gypsum may be just the answer for reconditioning the soil, because it can be applied on the surface soil in the vegetable garden, flowerbeds or on the lawn. In other words it does not have to be worked (cultivated or spaded) into the soil, it can simply be spread on the surface. What does Gypsum do? It has the ability to penetrate the millions of fine clay particles in heavy or hardpan type soils and loosen the soil structure. This process then creates air and moisture spaces that eventually loosen and break-up the soil structure. The only problem is that this doesn't happen overnight, it takes yearly applications, over about a three-year period to get the job done.
Article here; http://www.humeseeds.com/gypsum.htm
Dutch
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